[SOLVED] All drives show up as unformatted

Hey there!

 

My unRAID 5 did not shut down properly yesterday. I had to force it to power off using the power button. Since then the drives show up as unformatted. What should I do?

 

Thank you for any support!

First shut down your unraid.  Take the flash drive to a pc and run checkdisk on it.  Then let's wait for some of the more experienced members to come in.

Do NOT hit the format button!!

 

Please explain what happened when you rebooted after the hard shutdown. Did the array start automatically? Did a parity check start? Did you get parity errors? Are any drives showing a red ball?

 

Also post a syslog.

I just realized that the forced power down did not corrupt anything. It happened after I deleted a few files from the flash drive and then I did a clean restart. After it booted up, I saw the error.

 

I connected the flash drive to my win 7 install on parallels. It immediately warned me that some files may me fixed with a scan (first image in attachments)

 

Then i ran chkdsk on the drive (second image in attachments)

 

No, I won't hit the format button. No worries After the reboot the array started with all drives assigned but unformatted. No parity check started afaik.

 

No drives show up with a red ball on the main page.

 

And attached is the syslog. I had because it was too large for the uploader.

 

Do you need more info?

The syslog is cut off. Need the entire syslog. Please zip and attach. Attach a screenshot of unRAID main.

Oh god... This uploader is a pain. I don't have enough space available to upload the syslog. I get this error:

 

The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator.

There you go:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bf7bxeqin3121ve/Archive.zip

For future reference, pastebin.com is a place users sometimes paste large syslogs.

Run the commands ...

 

fdisk -l /dev/sda

 

fdisk -l /dev/sdb

 

fdisk -l /dev/sdc

 

fdisk -l /dev/sdd

 

fdisk -l /dev/sde

 

and post the results.

There it is:

 

root@Tower:/boot# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 62016336 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 63 * 512 = 32256 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               2    62016336  1953514552   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
root@Tower:/boot# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 62016336 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 63 * 512 = 32256 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               2    62016336  1953514552   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
root@Tower:/boot# fdisk -l /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 46512336 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 63 * 512 = 32256 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               2    46512336  1465138552   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
root@Tower:/boot# fdisk -l /dev/sdd

Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
1 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15504336 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 63 * 512 = 32256 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               2    15504336   488386552   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
root@Tower:/boot# fdisk -l /dev/sde

Disk /dev/sde: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
256 heads, 44 sectors/track, 1390 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 11264 * 512 = 5767168 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sde1   *           1        1391     7830428    b  W95 FAT32

If it isn't obvious, this is good news.

 

Each of your disks has a Linux partition. That's where your data is stored. Each of those partitions says "Linux", which means (I am pretty sure), that the partition is recognized as a Linux formatted partition.

 

But I do not know why unRAID is not mounting these drives. That appears to be the issue and the reason we see the unformatted (unRAID tends to declare a drive as unformatted when it can't be mounted). It is a very dangerous situation, because if you hit the format button unRAID WILL format the disks effectively erasing all of your data. There are recovery methods so reformatting doesn't mean you've lost all of your data, but it does turn recovery into a much lengthier and more difficult process.

 

I think we need someone that can look at the syslog and better interpret what might be going wrong with the mount. He may even want to try mounting the filesystems outside of unRAID control to get more information. I have never seen a hard shutdown make a filesystem unmountable, so there may be a coincidence of some other action (you said you deleted some files on the flash) and the behavior we're seeing.

 

Be patient. Do NOT hit format.

Start in safe mode and attach a new syslog.

Start in safe mode and attach a new syslog.

You can ZIP the complete syslog if its too big to attach to your forum post.

Start in safe mode and attach a new syslog.

You can ZIP the complete syslog if its too big to attach to your forum post.

 

He did find a way to attach his syslog using his dropbox. See a few messages up.

Uhhh... This doesn't sound good.

 

So, recalling from my memory what I deleted exactly:

 

I deleted files I found unnecessary in the /boot/custom folder. I cant really recall what it was exactly. I have been testing some torrent clients (utorrent, rtorrent, transmission and deluge) and I think these files were related to that.

I also deleted a folder where I kept old unneeded packages.

 

Might something which was installed and now is deleted in those folders be causing this? What happens if there is an error installing a package?

 

How do I boot in safe mode? By creating a file at /boot/unraidsafemode?

Safe Mode:

Shut down completely, (and as cleanly and safely as you can).

Use a console monitor and keyboard hooked to your unRAID array.

Power on the array...and watch the monitor.

After the BIOS loads, you'll see a black and white text based screen appear. (sort of like what you see when windows is starting up after an unclean shutdown.)

In black and white, the screen will offer you options to : Continue to Boot as normal, To run a MEMORY TEST, and to boot in SAFEMODE.  Use the keyboard arrow keys to select SAFE MODE and enter.

 

Note that this black and white screen is on a timer...if you don't select something, after a while, it will just automatically boot in Normal mode. (and that's why most people don't even notice "SAfe Mode" is out there.   )

I currently don't have access to a monitor and keyboard. Is there another way to accomplish this? Otherwise I will get back as soon as I managed to do it.

Change the default in syslinux.cfg

What do I do exactly?

 

default menu.c32

Move the line "menu default" to the desire location.

Luksak,  Here's a brute force method to get to SAFE MODE:

Shut down unRAID

pull the flash drive and put it in your PC or Mac.

Open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to the flash drive.

You'll see all the files and folders at the ROOT of the Flash drive.

One of those files is called, "syslinux.cfg".

1. COPY that file "syslinux.cfg" to your local PC (so you can put it back later.)

2. EDIT the syslinux.cfg on the FLASH drive (Use something like 'notepad+', an editor that will properly edit linux files.)

(Free at: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/)

3. syslinux.cfg will look like this:

default menu.c32

menu title Lime Technology LLC

prompt 0

timeout 50

label unRAID OS

  menu default

  kernel bzimage

  append initrd=bzroot

label unRAID OS (Safe Mode)

  kernel bzimage

  append initrd=bzroot unraidsafemode

label Memtest86+

  kernel memtest

4. Delete the first 'label' and its block of lines. It'll look like this after you're deleted them:

default menu.c32

menu title Lime Technology LLC

prompt 0

timeout 50

label unRAID OS (Safe Mode)

  kernel bzimage

  append initrd=bzroot unraidsafemode

label Memtest86+

  kernel memtest

5. SAVE the file back to the FLASH Drive.

 

Eject the flash, pop it into your unRAID and boot unRAID...it should boot into SAFEMODE, (since you've deleted 'normal mode' from the choices.)

 

IMPORTANT: Once you get done debugging and unRAID is working again,

You will need to put the original syslinux.cfg file back on your flash.

You've saved it to your PC...so all you need to do is COPY the saved file to the FLASH. when you reboot unRAID, you'll start up in regular mode with your add-ins loading, etc.

 

---

MAC instructions:

Same thing if you're on a MAC, EXCEPT use the FINDER, not Windows Explorer, and the Mac editor (TextEdit) already works with Linux.)

Wow, the drives are mounted in safe mode. Great!

 

So, how do I find out what is causing unRAID not to mount the drives in the normal mode?

Wow, the drives are mounted in safe mode. Great!

 

So, how do I find out what is causing unRAID not to mount the drives in the normal mode?

since it's working in safe mode, most likely it's a plug-in. Disable your plug-ins and restart in normal mode. Start your plug-ins one at a time until you find the culprit.

Wow, the drives are mounted in safe mode. Great!

 

So, how do I find out what is causing unRAID not to mount the drives in the normal mode?

since it's working in safe mode, most likely it's a plug-in. Disable your plug-ins and restart in normal mode. Start your plug-ins one at a time until you find the culprit.

Yes, eroz is correct, your problem is almost certainly some sort of plugin conflict.

I ran back through your posted Syslog and you're installing a lot of plugins, including many that don't come up very often in the forum discussions. So I can't really help you sort through them...I just don't know.  But here are some guidelines:

 

1. Plugins in unRAID are written by the community. They are maintained by volunteers...sometimes that means they aren't current, and in some cases, actually do not work with current versions of unRAID.

2. Currently there is no agreed upon way for plugin authors to 'coordinate' the 'packages' they use to build their plugins. (there is some work going on to rationalize all that, but that won't help you, yet.) As a consequence, different plugins may load different versions of the gcc compiler or of Python, etc.

3. unRAID runs IN MEMORY, and is completely loaded into MEMORY at the end of the boot process, INCLUDING each and every plugin on your FLASH DRIVE. Its easy to add plugins to unRAID, but ALL PLUGINS that are added to your configuration are LOADED into MEMORY and are ready for execution...its not like you can switch them 'on' or 'off' after booting. And each plugin will load ALL of its dependencies into memory so that it it ready to go if needed.

 

So the moral here is:

1. ONLY add plugins that you actually USE. If you want to TEST a plugin to see if its useful, BACKUP your FLASH DRIVE *before* you add the new plugin. That way, if you decide the plugin isn't worth keeping, its easy to go back.

2. READ the FORUM for the latest on any Plugin news. Not all plugins work version 5.0.x.  The forums are most likely to have the lastest scoop.

 

More practically, here's what I'd do if I were in your situation:

1. I'd run a parity check on your unRAID just to be sure everything's fine with your array data.

2. I'd setup 'shares' and whatever other configuration you require.

3. If it were me, and I was where you're at, I'd start with a fresh install of unRAID onto the Flash. (That IMHO is the easiest way to kill all existing plugins as well as whatever they've individually done to your Flash..)  Do NOT install the enhanced 'official' enhanced WEBGUI--it is currently NOT working with unRAID.

4. THEN, I'd boot up unRAID. With a fresh install, you'll start in 'normal mode' and not 'SAFE MODE'... unRAID should load just fine, the disks should mount, and you should be able to start the array. All should be fine. (albeit with no Plugins).

 

5.If you want a better web interface take a look at "DYNAMIX" in the forums. Its well supported. Install it now, and reboot. There is a 'plugins page' in Dynamix that is pretty well up to date, for those plugins that it supports.

 

6. NOW, go back through the list of what you really need and use as plugins. Add them one at a time, restarting unRAID after each. Install

control_panel-ikosa as the first added in plugin, as it helps you easily add others, but remember, you may need to back out a plugin, so save your Flash to your PC as you go along.

 

Of the plugins that I see on your syslog, I *believe* the following to be generally recognized as safe as long as you have the LATEST version. (see forums to be sure):

• cache_directories
  
• control_panel-ikosa (but NOT necessarily all the plugins that it enables! ONLY the ikosa control panel is reasonably known to work. Each individual plugin within needs to be verified, as if you were installing it stand alone.)
  

It looks like you use unRAID for system development/programming. Sorry I can't help you with that, as

I don't know anything about these plugins:

• deluge
  
• boost
  
• gcc  471
  
• gcc ++ 471
  
• GeoIP
  
• rasterbar
  
• Mako
  
• openssl-1.0.1g-i486-1_slack14.0      (I'm just not sure about the version...openssl itself is commonly seen in unRAID)
  
• pyOpenssl
  
• pysetuptools
  
• python  273
  
• python2-chardet-2.0.1-i486-1ponce
  
• python-twisted-12.1.0-i486-1ponce
  
• pyxdg-0.25-i486-1_microlinux
  
• zope.interface-4.1.0-i486-1alien
  
• infozip-6.0-i486-1
  
• screen-4.0.3-i468-1atv
  
• utempter-1.1.5-i486-1.txz
  
• screen-4.0.3-i486-1.txz  (not sure why this is installing twice)
  
• transmission_unplugged
  
• curl-7.21.4-i486-1
  
• libevent-2.0.11-i486-1sl
  
• libidn-1.19-i486-1.txz
  
• openldap-client-2.4.21-i486-1.txz
  
• transmission-2.76-i686-1PTr  (yes, it looks like a 2nd and different version of Transmission)
  
• dmidecode-2.10-i486-1.txz
  
• dropbox-overbyrn
  
• python-2.7.3-i486-2-upgraded-2014-04-18 (! yes more pythons)
  
• python-2.6.6-i486-1
  

I figured out which plugin is causing the trouble. It is the Deluge plugin (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=32457.msg296972). Any ideas what the exact problem is?

 

I have installed a lot of stuff on my unRAID trying to find the right tools for what I need. Yes, most of the stuff is actually unneeded. I would like to avoid installing unRAID from scratch because invested a fair amount of time in it. I would like to clean it up. I have still got unmenu installed from the time of 4.7. All the other stuff I need is inside the plugins. Is it ok to simply delete all packages? The plugins should re-download them again, right? How do I uninstall unmenu?

 

I switched to the dynamix webgui. Thanks for the suggestion.